In human medicine, a vaccine is often made with a weakened or killed pathogen, such as a bacterium or virus, or of a portion of the pathogen's structure that upon administration stimulates antibody production or cellular immunity against the pathogen, but is rarely incapable of causing severe infection. However, the prior art has never applied this concept of administering a pathogen to computer systems for the purpose of enhancing immunity.
In computing systems, the most common method for detecting computer problems such as viruses or corrupted files is by “signature scanning”. This method involves searching files in a computer system for data signatures that are unique to the target. For example, a virus may be identified by a particular string of data. A typical virus scanner operates by loading a set of virus data signatures into memory and then sequentially scanning the host system files for the presence of these data signatures.
However, the number of computer viruses is continually growing. There are currently over 50,000 known computer viruses. As a result, prior art in virus diagnosis and treatment is becoming overwhelmed. For example, scanning a typical system with 20,000 files for a data set of 50,000 virus signatures involves a total of one billion file searches. The prior art techniques are thus becoming more time consuming, resource consuming, and costly. Thus, there is a pressing need for new and more efficient ways to protect against computer viruses. In addition, infection by fast-spreading computer “worms”, or self-spreading viruses, often overwhelms human speed and defeats the ability of automatic software to counter them in the prior art.
Newer diagnostic systems for viruses have emerged using the concept of digital immune systems. In such a method, the computing system is designed to react like a human immune system by detecting known or unknown viral signatures and by automatically generating a “vaccine.” However, this is not a true “vaccine.” In the prior art there is no attempt to use the virulent aspect of the pathogen itself to strengthen the host. Also, there has never been an attempt to immunize a network by infecting it with truly hostile (i.e., not merely self-replicating) code. Thus, the prior art has never utilized the strength of a hostile computer virus in order to strengthen and to stabilize a network.
As explained above, prior art diagnostic systems are limited to reactive methods such as virus scanning or limited attempts at an encapsulated digital immune system. Thus, the prior art has several limitations. It is widely acknowledged that current antivirus solutions are inadequate. Although software to protect against computer viruses is in widespread use, each year viruses cause between $10-20 billion in damage worldwide. The average business currently spends $81,000 to clean up after each virus outbreak. The Code Red virus itself is estimated to have cost $2.5 billion worldwide. In fact, Code Red still exists in the wild nearly two years after it was first released, and some researchers have shown that the Internet might remain infected with it indefinitely.
In addition, the growing threat from wireless devices could amplify the danger. For example, viruses that infect wireless devices already exist. Moreover, hundreds of millions of “smart” wireless phones (Smartphones)—phones with sophisticated software—will soon be potential victims. For example, Microsoft Corporation reported that it is “only a matter of time” before their Windows Mobile Smartphone platform is attacked by viruses.
The explosion of hundreds of millions of such “smart” handheld devices as personal data assistants (PDAs) and smartphones pose a double risk. On the one hand, these mobile devices generally lack effective anti-virus software and have little or no security architecture. On the other hand, they often incorporate multiple communication protocols and methods for data transfer, which can increase the number of virus vectors. Each one of these data transfer mechanisms can increase the opportunity for viruses to spread.